Hi everyone,
I have been wanting to put a lift kit on my 1996 Blazer 4 Door and I was wondering if there are any problems associated with putting larger tires on it. Like specifically will the wheel bearings or ball joints wear out faster? I was thinking of putting 30's on my blazer.
Thanks for the help!!

 

You can put 30s on a blazer without any lift. You shouldn't have any problems with just 30s. But if you are doing a lift I would suggest going up to a 31x10.50, Because it fills out a little better and gives your truck a much better look in my opinion.

 

A lot depends on how big you go and what wheels you pick.

30's won't cause any problems, espescially on stock wheels.

Typically, the issues you run into (which are more of a problem as the tire gets larger and as the rim's backspacing decreases), are wheel bearings, ball joints, idler arms(if you wheel), and your speedometer will be off a bit.

 

Thanks! Thats exactly what I needed to know.

 

Chevrolet made two sizes of original "BLAZER" spare tire covers, if anyone except me has one of those still intact. One spare tire cover fits P205-75R15 tires ( 27" OD) and the other fits P235-75R15 ( 29"OD ) tires. If you don't use the factory recomendedsize tires, you cannot use your original spare tire cover. You can go to Pep Boyz (or equal) and get an cheap aftermarket tire cover that will fit but it will not have "BLAZER" on it. I don't know how much butthe ABS brakes may beadversly effected if you change from the recommended tire sizes.

It appears the original BLAZER 27" spare tire cover for a P205-75R15 tire is relatively rare because most of the tail-gate mounted spare tires are 29" P235-75R15.

 

I dont want to contradict anyone here, but I dont think your tire size effects the ABS. ABS is more hub related then tire related. It works with a sensor and little teeth in the hub. If the sensor sees that the wheel is locked and the truck is moving, the module will release pressure on the brakes allowing the wheel to turn. I dont want to seem out of place, but I think people should know.

 

Effect on the ABS system depends on the year of your truck. Newer modles are more involved and the puter looks at the whel sensors, vss, 4x4 mode, and adjusts teh engine/tranny accordingly. Older models do as described.

IF you ahve a 4wheel ABS you must run the same size tires at all four corners.

 

True, true, but running different tire sizes on any 4WD with or without abs is not usually suggested, and its not nice to look at either. I still believe though that the abs will not be effected by tire size because it ends at the hub. Even when the tranny/engine are effected, its the speed of the hub that is sent to the abs unit to control braking and not the speed of the tire.And seeing how the tranny speed sensor is turning and in sync with the hub, I dont think a bigger or smaller tire can effect the abs. But i do agree with you 100% that the kind of abs and complexity will be year/model related in any circumstance.